'Outdoor
activities'
Amstel introduced
in Congo
Three-week course for junior management
Building a raft, a gruelling trek through the Belgian Arden
nes in the middle of the night, building a makeshift construc
tion to get you over to the other bank of a river. Not the most
obvious activities for a management course, you might think.
But if you'd taken part in the HIMDEC (Heineken Interna
tional Management Development Course) in the past three
years you'd know better.
Report
Understanding
Wet feet
Building a raft
The 'outdoor activities'
make heavy demands on the
participant. Endurance,
patience and improvisational
talent are severely tested.
The outdoor activities during
HIMDEC 1988 give an
accurate reflection of this.
PAGE4HEINEKEN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE NR. 17
HIMDEC is
a raft
Corporate Management Devel
opment organises HIMDEC once a
year. For three weeks participants
from Heineken operating
companies all over the world get
together in the Netherlands. The
twenty members of the course are
given an insight into marketing,
finance, management, leadership
and team spirit. The way in which
Heineken approaches these
subjects in practice is also dealt
with. Heineken speakers are
Year. The general managers of the
operating companies receive a
letter asking them to nominate
prospective candidates for
HIMDEC. In consultation with the
management of the relevant
operating company, Management
Development then makes a selec
tion of candidates based on the
widest possible variety of disci
plines and nationalities. After the
selection, the management has to
inform the HIMDEC participant
Mrs. Th.A.M. Springin 'tVeldandMr. C.A. Zandvliet are responsible for
corporate management training courses, including HIMDEC.
invited along to give talks. In
addition, the course has several,
more general objectives: promot
ing the sense of belonging to the
Heineken family, creating greater
understanding for the work of other
disciplines within the employee's
own organisation, encouraging
team spirit and, lastly, learning to
accept and handle cultural differ
ences between the participants.
HIMDEC is intended for junior
management, for those employees
in job class 20 or 25 who have the
potential to move to higher posts
within the organisation. Participat
ing in HIMDEC does not mean
that the employee finds a new
appointment waiting for him or her
immediately after returning home
from the course. The course is
intended to give the participant an
opportunity to gain a broader
overall view of the company. He or
she will have to 'earn' a new, more
senior post by showing results in
day-to-day work.
This is one of the reasons why the
results achieved by each HIMDEC
participant are not passed on to his
company management in the form
of examination marks. Besides, the
Training Department of Corporate
Management Development feels
that reporting would conflict with
one of the basic principles of
HIMDEC: reporting encourages
rivalry and does not promote team
spirit.
For Management Development
the preparations for HIMDEC
(which is always held in the
autumn) start as early as the New
about the reasons why he or she has
been chosen to take part in the
course.
On the last day of the course the
participants take stock of what
they've learnt. On the whole those
taking part in the course are very
positive about the contents of
HIMDEC; they have gained a
better understanding of the work
done by other disciplines and also
of their own strong and weak
points. The reactions to the
'outdoor activities'or the 'practical
lessons out in the wild' range
between the two extremes: many
participants are very enthusiastic,
others take a considerably less
positive view of the experiences
because they fail to see their practi
cal value. But the fact remains that,
after the outdoor activities, their
approach to each other is totally
different. Mutual bonds are much
closer and the participants form
more of a cohesive group.
that they are all carrying enough
gear to get them through the night.
The groups are instructed to report
at 12 noon the next day at a bridge
located many kilometres away.
They have to decide for themselves
how they will get there.
By midday all participants have
arrived at the bridge: tired, but with
a sense of achievement. But they
still get no rest. On the same after
noon three groups are formed
which have to build constructions
across water. They are not told
what these ingenious structures
should look like. They have to
agree together on a solution. The
mission is only successful once
several members of each group
have crossed over the construction
to the other side without getting
their feet wet. Four hours later the
assignment has been completed
and the participants - muddied, wet
and exhausted - make their way
back to the dormitory. After a
refreshing shower the participants
find that their work is still not over:
if they still want something to eat,
they'll have to cook it themselves!
After the meal there's a little time
left to talk about the events of the
previous night and day.
The next morning at 8 a.m.
An ingenious construction built across a stream during HIMDEC 1988.
more than building
In the Congo the Amstel campaign has the same slogan that is used for
Amstel in Cameroun.
Primus, our successful regular
beer brand in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, has been
joined by a companion. Since last
month consumers have been able
to get the taste of Amstel: the beer
which in the Congo, just as in so
many other countries, is marketed
as a premium brand.
Within Heineken plans had
existed for several years for the
introduction of Amstel beer in the
Congo. But the capacity of
Brasserie de Brazzaville was not
enough to brew both Primus and
Amstel. The expansion of the
capacity to 550,000 hectolitres
meant that the ideal moment had
arrived for Heineken to launch
Amstel.
To familiarise the consumer with
the new brand a two-stage advertis
ing campaign has been devised. In
October consumers were made
aware of Amstel via billboards and
radio commercials. As from 1st
November television commercials
have also been broadcast.
The slogan of the advertising
messages is the same as that used
for the Amstel campaign in
Cameroun: Amstel, plaisir raffiné,
plaisir partagé (Amstel, sophisti
cated pleasure, shared pleasure).
For the rest the campaigns in
Cameroun and Congo cannot be
compared. As always, advertising
campaigns for our international
beer brands are adapted to the loca
market situation.
After the tiring first week of the
course the group is taken by bus to
the Ardennes on Saturday evening
(after attending lessons during the
daytime). At about 23.30 hrs. the
group arrives at a simple building,
hidden away deep inside the exten
sive forests. This will serve as their
temporary base. Ten minutes after
their arrival the participants realise
that they won't be getting a good
night's sleep. Within half an hour
everyone has to be packed ready
for a long trek. The participants are
split into two groups and each
group appoints a leader from its
midst. The leader has to make sure
Some of the members of the 1987 HIMDEC course check whether the
home-made raft is sturdy enough for a long trip down river.
everyone has to be present again,
for the next task is to build rafts.
The two groups are given sufficient
materials to do the job. The raft has
to be big enough to carry nine
people and, of course, it has to
float, since the group has to travel
some way down the river towards
the finishing point of the assign
ment. In the evening all the
participants gather together again
to talk about that day's experi
ences. All group members are
asked for their opinion on how
things went that day. Did the leader
do a good job? What was the
motivation like within the group?
On the following morning the
HIMDEC participants stay in
doors. Because of their strenuous
efforts over the past few days the're
too tired to set out again. The group
holds an intensive discussion on
what it means for each one
individually to have to take
decisions which are unpopular in
day-to-day practice.
That very same afternoon the
participants board the bus that will
take them back to the training
centre in the Netherlands. The
driver is puzzled at how quiet things
are in his bus. Surely, he'd been
told that his passengers were
people from Heineken?
